Apple more likely to produce Verizon iPhone with 4G

Although his company snubbed Apple on the first go-round, Verizon's chief executive Ivan Seidenberg now says the chances of an iPhone on his network will be greater once a 4G cellular network is in place.

The CEO explained to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Apple is 'more likely' to want to work with Verizon due to the wider distribution of the 4G standard it will use to supplement, and eventually replace, its 3G network.

According to Seidenberg, Apple was never likely to create an iPhone suitable for Verizon's existing network simply because its choice of the CDMA standard for phone calls limited what could be done. While CDMA and its matching EVDO data format are very popular among carriers in North America and are shared with Alltel, Bell, Sprint and Telus (among others), the standards have very little reach outside of the continent. Choosing CDMA may have forced Apple to make a second iPhone model just to accommodate the rest of the world, which has settled on the more popular GSM and HSPA protocols.

That problem goes away with Verizon's choice of Long Term Evolution (LTE) for 4G. Unlike the artificial split between North America and the rest of the world today, a large number of both domestic and international carriers plan to move to LTE within the next few years, including AT&T and T-Mobile USA. The switch will let Apple build iPhones that stay with one core technology but which could be used worldwide with no real compromise and on the majority of US carriers.

Whether or not the network is truly the sticking point Seidenberg claims, however, remains up for debate. Neither Apple nor Verizon has ever discussed it in public, but Verizon is believed to have snubbed Apple early on because it didn't see the viability of the iPhone when it was still far from completion. Just after the introduction of the first iPhone, the carrier spun its apparent loss by claiming that Apple wanted too much control over sales and service. Observers have also speculated that Verizon objected to being denied a chance to customize the interface and choose which features to allow.

Verizon eventually showed signs it regretted the decision as it launched the iPhone-like BlackBerry Storm a year and a half later -- with support for both CDMA and GSM.

Comments

It greatly saddened me to leave Telus for Rogers when I got my iPhone, and I can guarantee that the day a 4G/LTE iPhone is available simultaneous with the under-construction Bell/Telus joint LTE network I will be switching back.

It greatly saddened me to leave Telus for Rogers when I got my iPhone, and I can guarantee that the day a 4G/LTE iPhone is available simultaneous with the under-construction Bell/Telus joint LTE network I will be switching back.

I use to have Telus and hated it. I prefer Rogers over Telus. Far better service!

It greatly saddened me to leave Telus for Rogers when I got my iPhone, and I can guarantee that the day a 4G/LTE iPhone is available simultaneous with the under-construction Bell/Telus joint LTE network I will be switching back.

I was with Telus for years, and made the switch for the iPhone. I can't say that Telus was great, but Rogers is even worse.

I'm really hoping that AT&T, Verizon or T-mobile will offer an unlimited North American data plan to try to win business for the 4G. If they do, I'll probably opt for a US phone as I split my time between both countries.

I would imagine Apple will play whatever suits them best, which is what suits the iPhone best. Likely a better deal may come through an exclusive carrier in the U.S, but multi-carrier would help reduce jailbreaking for different carriers.

It seems like when Apple went the first round of negotiations, it was also posturing to look serious with Verizon in order to get a better deal with AT&T, although I'm sure they could have done CDMA if negotiations were really early in iPhone development. Perhaps it was also to see where to begin negotiations with AT&T.

The Verizon CEO is just trying to save face. I bet there are several investors pissed by them missing the iPhone boat, and that fury will surface soon, when in the next few quarters Verizon will miss earnings due to the poor economy.

He is trying to lay down the story that the refusal wasn't his fault (and hence that shouldn't be used against him in considering firing decisions).

It's encouraging that future network technologies are settling upon a single 4G standard, namely LTE (with the sole exception being Sprint, apparently), but what are the ramifications for handset makers of all the different radio frequencies used? How does that effect power consumption and internal antenna design?

It greatly saddened me to leave Telus for Rogers when I got my iPhone, and I can guarantee that the day a 4G/LTE iPhone is available simultaneous with the under-construction Bell/Telus joint LTE network I will be switching back.

None of the carriers are very good and the worst part of it is the monopoly which Canadians are notoriously lenient about to their disadvantage.

The good news for Canada is that both Telus and Bell announced recently that they are switching to the same tech as Rogers/fido. This means in something like a year and a half, Telus and Bell will be able to support iPhone, and Rogers will have actual competition on price much sooner than the switch to 4G networks outlined in the article.

Who wants to bet that the price goes down by about 50% fter this happens despite the fact that Rogers claims to be giving everyone a terrific deal now and pricing their stuff "as low as they can"?

The Verizon CEO is just trying to save face. I bet there are several investors pissed by them missing the iPhone boat, and that fury will surface soon, when in the next few quarters Verizon will miss earnings due to the poor economy.

He is trying to lay down the story that the refusal wasn't his fault (and hence that shouldn't be used against him in considering firing decisions).

I agree totally. When the iPhone was released, Verizon said they didn't think it was that great, and they didn't want to carry it. Funny to see them come back begging to Apple.

It's encouraging that future network technologies are settling upon a single 4G standard, namely LTE (with the sole exception being Sprint, apparently), but what are the ramifications for handset makers of all the different radio frequencies used? How does that effect power consumption and internal antenna design?

Nokia offers slightly different models for several of its 3G phones in Australia - one version will do 2100Mhz & 850Mhz, the other will do 2100Mhz & 900Mhz. If it was easy they'd support all 3 in one phone.

So it's likely to be an issue with future iPhones too. Hopefully, like GSM, the chipmakers will integrate as much as they can.

To say that is to suggest that Apple really would have went with it. Apple likely would not have. It was using Verizon to get a good deal from AT&T. Apple wanted to standardize on one type of hardware. That required Apple to go with T-Mobile or AT&T. Further, Steve Jobs already knew AT&T's CEO.

Besides being a horrible company in general, it's CEO didn't do anything to prevent it from getting the iPhone.

Quote:

Originally Posted by addicted44

The Verizon CEO is just trying to save face. I bet there are several investors pissed by them missing the iPhone boat, and that fury will surface soon, when in the next few quarters Verizon will miss earnings due to the poor economy.

He is trying to lay down the story that the refusal wasn't his fault (and hence that shouldn't be used against him in considering firing decisions).

I think this is just posturing in response to AT&T's recent hints that they want to extend their exclusive service with Apple.

As narrow-minded and dim as they were, I don't think anyone blames Verizon too much for missing the iPhone the first time around. Apple is a hard partner to satisfy. But if they were to miss out on the iPhone a second time - that would be inexcusable.

Verizon's CEO says 2010, but it won't be until 2011/2012 that Apple bothers sticking in a 4G chip into it's phones simply because of chipset maturity (same argument with the original iPhone not having 3G). Plus, they'd also probably not want to open negotiations with Verizon until AT&T also has a usable 4G network.

If anything though, the sooner Verizon switches to LTE nationwide, the sooner the US can come out of the cellphone dark ages and get a truly competitive mobile landscape where carriers must start competing more with prices and services than just phones alone.

Who knows what the cell phone landscape will look like in five, or even three years from now.

The way I see it is that both Apple and AT&T took a bit of a gamble which turned out just swell for both parties. Now that the iPhone is established as the envy of every smart phone maker, Apple doesn't need to play it so hard any more. It will be interesting to see where this leads. Didn't Steve Jobs himself say something like "We don't know what the future holds, but that makes it so interesting"?

It seems like when Apple went the first round of negotiations, it was also posturing to look serious with Verizon in order to get a better deal with AT&T, although I'm sure they could have done CDMA if negotiations were really early in iPhone development. Perhaps it was also to see where to begin negotiations with AT&T.

I understand that Verizon is just postulating Apple's actual intent, but I am relived that this idea has finally being solidified in an article as I've had that theory for 2 years now.

Who knows what the cell phone landscape will look like in five, or even three years from now.

The way I see it is that both Apple and AT&T took a bit of a gamble which turned out just swell for both parties. Now that the iPhone is established as the envy of every smart phone maker, Apple doesn't need to play it so hard any more.

I find it interesting that Apple has deals in something like 70 countries, but only with 30 carriers. That means they've largely found carriers who represent multiple countries. That's an interesting choice for Apple, and I wonder what that says for future US deals.

Verizon is half owned by Vodafone. T-Mobile already has a deal in Germany and elsewhere. etc.

Blackberry Storm sure left some bad taste in Verizon's mouth. The user interface is not redesigned for touch experience. The SurePress touchscreen, which hinders the advantage of touch screen typing experience just for the sake of physical click, is totally a joke. Let alone the bugs when it first debut. Blackberry Storm had tons and tons of obvious bugs when it first made its debut, even the notorious iPhone 2.0 had much less bugs than the Blackberry Storm.

With all the buzz for a new iPhone coming this Summer, 2009, I wonder if it would work with 4G! Same Q applies to 1st 2 iPhones! Similarly, I wonder if Snow Leopard will run on my Powerbook G4, 1.67, GB RAM... There is gonna have to be a cut off for some hardware...

If the answer is yes, as far as 4G, at least for the new iPhone coming this Summer, 2009, then it would work worldwide, right?

And if so, on what basis would the carriers compete? Seems like the price only! Why? Cause, if they all are 4G Compliant, wouldn't that mean the same speed with each carrier?

There would be no such thing as roaming, right? Total reciprocity?

4G Cards for Laptops, anywhere worldwide Internet?

Makes me grin, when I see today's noise about Sling TV, when all that stuff is coming, with Video Conferencing on the go etc.

So, on what basis would the carriers compete? How would they differentiate themselves!

I can't wait for the Unification on One Worldwide Standard, with a Backward Compatibility, same speed access for every OS, on every phone! Then, let the best OS, and hardware win!!!

But, I suspect that it won't be that simple, cause there will be attempts to divide the world markets, in order to control prices, and force customers into hardware upgrades!

And the governments in some cases will try to control features, as seems to be the case in China!

And then there are Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm Pre! I wonder if there will again be Alliance Wars, Coalitions between OS + hardware + carriers, with their own Exclusive Clubs to trap customers in?!

I would imagine Apple will play whatever suits them best, which is what suits the iPhone best. Likely a better deal may come through an exclusive carrier in the U.S, but multi-carrier would help reduce jailbreaking for different carriers.

It seems like when Apple went the first round of negotiations, it was also posturing to look serious with Verizon in order to get a better deal with AT&T, although I'm sure they could have done CDMA if negotiations were really early in iPhone development. Perhaps it was also to see where to begin negotiations with AT&T.

Jailbreaking has nothing to do with different carriers. You are referring to unlocking a phone. Jailbreaking allows you to install unauthorized applications on a phone.

Verizon told Apple to stick it because they didn't think Apple could build a phone.